Woman at center of D.C. vandalism probe remains a mystery
When I first heard the news of the vandalism of the Lincoln Memorial, National Cathedral and several other D.C. landmarks, I was outraged. Though the more I read about the suspect in this case, I am ashamed of myself. The story of Jiamei Tian is emerging as more of an indictment on how so many of the mentally ill and/or homeless exist among us, alone and abandoned, invisible even in sight of the greatest memorials to our democracy, one that has apparently failed Ms. Tian.
From the Washington Post
[link:http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/woman-in-green-paint-case-slept-in-park-near-white-house-and-her-life-is-a-mystery/2013/08/03/6a52d3f0-fad6-11e2-a369-d1954abcb7e3_story.html?hpid=z1|
Woman at center of D.C. vandalism probe remains a mystery
Her home, at times, was a shaded bench with a sight line toward the White House, in a tiny park used regularly by employees of the nearby World Bank.
Jiamei Tian often sat alone, keeping a close eye on her cart and the blue laundry bag that held her belongings. Off in the distance, over her left shoulder, stood the Lincoln Memorial, and behind her stretched the Mall. She occupied a park managed by the National Park Service, the same agency that protects some of the national treasures that Tian is suspected of defacing with splotches of mint green paint.
Why Tian might have tarnished some of the most visible emblems of the capital city remains a mystery. Those landmarks surrounded her uncertain existence, which has proved difficult to trace.
Tian is from China, doesn’t speak much English, and is believed by authorities to suffer from mental illness. But little else has emerged about this 58-year-old woman since her arrest last week after a four-day outbreak of vandalism in which churches, statues and the nation’s hallowed memorial to Abraham Lincoln were splashed with paint... MORE
Edited to add link
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/woman-in-green-paint-case-slept-in-park-near-white-house-and-her-life-is-a-mystery/2013/08/03/6a52d3f0-fad6-11e2-a369-d1954abcb7e3_story.html?hpid=z1